23 March 2009

"Lead India" Winners Join BJP

The Times of India group had held a talent search-cum-reality show last year called "Lead India". The purpose was to find "new leaders" for India. R K Misra from Bangalore won the contest, while Devang Nanavati from Ahmedabad was the runner-up. R K Misra (43) is an entrepreneur and an alumnus of IIT Kanpur. Devang Nanavati (38) is a lawyer at the Gujarat High Court.

Now comes the kicker. Both Misra and Nanavati have joined the BJP. Why? Nanavati says he was "immensely influenced by BJP's political ideology for the last seven years but felt now it was the time to join the party formally and be more useful for it". Misra says "NDA's focus on development and good governance during 1998-2004 is what inspired me the most to join the party".

When "Lead India" concluded, Times of India must have been very pleased with the results. Misra and Nanavati are both young, urban, educated and successful professionals. This is India's generation X. This is the brave new India. This is both TOI's self-image and its target audience. It couldn't have asked for better spokesmen for its liberalism and secularism. And what do these nice boys do? They run and join the BJP. Yes – the communal, Hindu fundamentalist and fascist BJP. Very bad, very bad. What will happen to this country?